Court Sends Main Accused to Police Custody in HIV-Positive Girl Rape Case

HIV-Positive Girl Rape Case: Latur, A sessions court in the Latur city of Maharashtra on Sunday sent the key accused in the alleged rape of an HIV-infected minor girl inside a shelter home to police custody till Monday.

The suspect Amit Ankush Waghmare was arrested on Saturday. Five individuals including the shelter founder have been arrested by police over the alleged sexual assault, an official told.

The girl, as reported, was raped two years at a shelter home of a children district in Latur and obliged to get rid of her pregnancy.

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According to the complaint that the girl had lodged at Dhoki police station in her hometown Dharashiv district, the sexual abuse occurred in the period of July 13, 2023, to July 23 this year in Sevalay home that takes care of HIV infected children in Hasegaon here.

Four times she was allegedly raped by a staff of the shelter. He also threatened her that she should never tell anybody about the ordeal. According to the police, the shelter manager failed her and even ripped up a letter that she had highlighted to the officials and placed in one of the complaint boxes.

She had gone to a hospital after she fell sick, and she was found to be about four months pregnant, which prompted the accused to obtain the services of the doctor to conduct an abortion on her without her permission police earlier said.

Sevalay founder Ravi Bapatle, its superintendent Rachna Bapatle, employee Rani Waghmare, and Pooja Waghmare were arrested in a case and taken to the sessions court today, i.e. Saturday. They were taken to police custody up to July 28.

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Amit Waghmare was produced in the sessions court on Sunday which remanded him in police custody for a day, an official said.

The official said it will be presented in the court since the five accused will come out of police custody on Monday as their detention ends on that day.

One Amit Mahamuni was also picked up earlier because of the confusion of the survivor, but since it was established that he had nothing to do with the crime he was released as well, police said.

In the meantime, police said it is conducting an investigation about the hospital in which the minor was allegedly forced to have an abortion.

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